It says "assault rifle", which is a specific technical term that, basically, means a medium-caliber weapon capable of switching to fully automatic fire. The M-16 is an assault rifle, as is an (real) AK-47/AK-74. I'm assuming that the author isn't using words speciously, so they weren't "assault weapons", which is an arbitrary term defined solely in legislation, such as the expired federal "Assault Weapons Ban", and California's existing "Assault Weapons Ban".